JobsOhio does not have to turn over records, Ohio Supreme Court rules

Tuesday

Dec 3, 2013 at 12:01 AMDec 3, 2013 at 7:23 PM

The Ohio Supreme Court said JobsOhio does not have to turn over emails and other records documenting private donors to a lawyer who asked for them, ruling that Gov. John Kasich's privatized development agency is exempted from much of Ohio's public records law.

Joe Vardon, The Columbus Dispatch

The Supreme Court said JobsOhio does not have to turn over emails and other records documenting private donors to a lawyer who asked for them, ruling today that Gov. John Kasich’s privatized development agency is exempt from much of Ohio’s public records law.

In a 6-0 decision, the high court dismissed a request from attorney Victoria Ullmann to force JobsOhio to hand over several kinds of records, citing the exemptions written into law when the legislature created JobsOhio in 2011. Justice Terrence O’Donnell did not participate in the case.

Ullmann asked for minutes of JobsOhio board meetings; memos for conflict-of-interest policy; a list of private donors; documents used to determine whether a board member has a conflict; correspondence with the governor’s office, Kasich’s campaign, or the state’s development office over private donations; and correspondence related to public funds.

At one time Ullmann was the attorney for ProgressOhio’s lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of JobsOhio, but she was removed from that lawsuit.

Also this week, JobsOhio released its own performance report for the quarter ending Oct. 31, which showed that the agency underperformed in nearly every major metric compared with previous reports over the last year.

JobsOhio said it secured commitments for 3,835 new jobs, 6,161 retained jobs, $483 million in new and retained payroll, and $708 million in capital investment from 61 projects. Of those numbers, only the total number of projects and committed capital investment aren’t at their lowest points over the past year.

Although JobsOhio’s metrics differ from those normally used to measure the basics of any state economy – most snapshots are based off of monthly surveys counting unemployment rates and jobs created, whereas JobsOhio counts promises of new jobs to come – that the agency’s own numbers are down isn’t a shock.

Unemployment crept up to 7.5 percent in Ohio in September and October, while the state added fewer than 3,000 jobs during that span. Job gains over the past year have slowed well below the U.S. average; Ohio has added just 27,200, a gain of about 0.5 percent. The national average was 1.7 percent.

Matt Englehart, JobsOhio’s new communications manager who just started with the agency yesterday, said “quarterly data alone does not yield a complete picture.

“The third quarter was slower due in part to companies pushing decisions on projects and investments into future periods — this is something our regional partners have also experienced,” said Englehart, a former employee in the Taft administration who worked at the White House under George W. Bush along with current Ohio Republican chairman Matt Borges. “In addition to these quarterly results, we are focused on our pipeline of projects, which is robust and growing. Our pipeline includes projects with strong job creation and retention and significant capital investment.”

Englehart, a Canton native, last worked as an independent contractor for Singer Bonjean Strategies in Washington, listing the National Football League Players Association among his clients.